As the UK’s largest leasing company, Lex Autolease, announces a new five year remarketing deal with BCA, Managing Director Richard Jones raises questions about the problem of establishing residual values for electric vehicles.

The new BCA agreement, which builds on the original pioneering agreement established five years ago, covers both the leasing and motor finance divisions of Lloyds Banking Group. It is one of the biggest volume contracts in the used automotive sector. 

BCA will supply vehicle remarketing for Lex Outsourced Solutions and Black Horse, end of contract inspect and collect services, and pool fleet management among a range of other services.

Among the benefits, says BCA , are speed of disposal and improved liquidity for Lex Autolease, plus optimal efficiency thanks to reduced vehicle movement distances.

The announcement this week of the BCA-Lex Autolease partnership is set against the background of question marks over electric vehicle used pricing volatility.

Managing Director of the UK’s largest leasing company and owner of the  largest EV fleet in the UK, Richard Jones, raises questions about the ability to establish accurate valuations of plug-in vehicles.

Taking part in a fireside chat organised by publication Asset Finance International and sponsored by The White Clarke Group (now an IDS company), Jones offered this opinion:

“We run the largest battery-electric vehicle fleet in the UK, so we have got a lot of knowledge, but compared to the knowledge that we would like to have to be able to predict residual values with high accuracy, we have still got a long way to go. The simple fact is, the data is just not there yet because the market is not mature enough.”

Jones says that it will take a minimum of 12 months before enough volume arrives in the used car market to assess plug-in values more clearly. But, he says, with Government and local authorities encouraging a shift to electrification, the market will change in the long-term. “It is creating a whole behavioural bias away from traditional combustion vehicles,” he says. The only question remains when the inflection point will be and EV RVs firm up, and volatility switches to traditional combustion engine vehicles.